Saturday, February 13, 2016

BASIC (2014) was the seventh album, though it's technically only an EP. It was the spiritual successor to Robot MonStar, and was likewise a concept album in many ways. While Robot MonStar's main sound was of a more robotic and mechanical nature, Basic was supposed to be more primal and primitive. Originally it was intended to sound like a post-punk/new wave DIY compilation album, which were semi-prevalent at one time period (like the 'Killed By Death' compilations), with the more raw guitar oriented songs making up the second half, or B-side of the album. It sounded good on paper, but felt too disjointed when listened to as a whole. I abandoned the idea midway through production, and focused on the keyboard songs. Warning Light, originally titled "No Warning" was an example of the style of songs from the aborted second half of the album, although it remained on the final version.
I thought about having all of the song titles follow one of 2 types of name patterns. Pattern A songs were all titled "___ of ___" (Matter of Tact; Monster of Noise, etc.), and would make up the first half of the album. Pattern B songs would be on the second half of the album, and were all titled "No ___" (No Violins; No Warning, etc). Some of those remained for the final versions, like "Matter of Tact", and "Monster of Noise". "Moments of Violins" was originally titled "No Violins". "Warning Light" was called "No Warning", and "Future Arcade" was originally called "No Words".

Although BASIC was supposed to have been twice as long, had it included the planned second half, I decided to play off the name and make it the most minimalist version of an album I could. (Also, because I'm lazy.) It would have around 8 songs or so, and run just on the borderline between full length LP and short play EP. And once again, because I like gimmicky things, the title BASIC also was meant to signify that it's mostly features songs of an electronic/computerized type as well. I think it's a pretty good album, but it went in several directions during it's production. I was still restructuring it up till a couple days before it's release. Some of the cut songs included, "You Are the Dope", "Meanie Beanie", "Aurora Bearing Malice", "Kitty Spit-Up", "Circle Squares", 'No Feeling', "Sound of Television/warming glow", 'generic pop fair' and a couple others. Another short EP with the deleted songs was planned, but pushed to the side temporarily. A few of these songs have turned up since then in various forms.